


It Can Wait

by LadyRhin



Category: One Piece
Genre: Promises
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-01-13
Updated: 2016-01-13
Packaged: 2018-05-13 17:05:35
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 679
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5710234
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LadyRhin/pseuds/LadyRhin
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>To Zoro, death was absolute, so why fear the inevitable? As long as he achieved his dream before he met the Reaper, it was pointless to live in fear. So what could possibly send the fearless swordsman into a cold sweat?</p>
            </blockquote>





	It Can Wait

If anyone had asked if he feared the death he constantly faced and turned away from, Zoro may have simply laughed in their face and sent them on their way with a sense of embarrassment for asking such a ludicrous question. He may have even taken one look at them and made _himself_  theirnew greatest fear. He was fucking Roronoa Zoro, soon-to-be holder of the title of World's Greatest Swordsman. Fear was to have no involvement in his life; not now, not ever. Fear would only distract him from reaching his goal, take up space in his psyche that could be be directed towards making himself stronger in both body and mind.

Of course he accepted that while in any of the crew's battles with Marines and other pirates, he could very well meet his end if one mistake was made, but that was just a small hiccup in the plan. Death was a detail that had to be overcome, just like a muscle that could be trained into resisting fatigue. For as soon as he was handed that white blade, as soon as he made his promise over a small headstone glistening in the first sunrise after the worst day of his short life, dying for his cause became a price he was all too willing to pay. 

So no, Roronoa Zoro wasn't afraid of dying, no not at all. As long as he was able to achieve the dream he strived for, he'd greet the Reaper with open arms. Hell, they might even share a drink before his soul was put to rest. Death meant that nobody could disturb him from his midday naps anymore. Perhaps he would haunt some of the scumbags of the taverns he frequented that attempted to force themselves on the female patrons. The more he thought of it, the more Zoro began to look forward to dying. It would be a relief, he told himself, to not be constricted to functions required by the living. But never before he defeated the one man keeping him from being the greatest. Until he stood over Mihawk's body, breathing or not, death could kiss the very bottom of his ass.* 

Before his encounter with Mihawk at that floating restaurant, Roronoa Zoro was afraid of nothing. Not judgment, not a man, and certainly not death. Before he gained the scar that nearly rended him in half, he was not afraid. 

When the thought of failing his captain, the young boy screaming out his name as he fell into the ocean bleeding out more blood than he'd ever seen come from one body crossed his mind, Zoro was scared. When he heard that infuriating chef call out to him to just give up and live, he was afraid that he'd lost what little respect the man had developed for him. 

It shook him to his core to imagine the look of disappointment on Luffy's face, the regret he'd feel for asking him to join his crew. His breath quickened at the very idea of breaking his promise of becoming a swordsman worthy of serving the Pirate King. For the first time since he saw that thin body covered by a white sheet at the bottom of those stairs, since he lost his best friend to his own selfishness, Zoro cried. 

He cried for his failure, his stupidity, how his shortsighted knowledge of the world had almost cost him any shred of a chance at becoming the greatest. 

Pushing his failing body even further, he lifted Wado into the air, towards the heavens where the origin of his dream resided, he made one more vow. To learn, to grow, to never underestimate an opponent, to keep his ego from ever getting the best of him again. He vowed to accept this fear, but to never let it control him, rather, to drive him past his limit. Zoro vowed to never break the trust his captain had placed in him in that empty courtyard.

The Reaper was going to have to wait a bit longer for that drink. 

**Author's Note:**

> I've actually had this written for about a month now and thought it was a brilliant idea to post it the day before the new semester started. 
> 
> *Just a little thing my mom says whenever she's tired of anybody's shit.


End file.
